So I just read the Second Foundation Trilogy (The Killer B's addition to the Isaac Asimov universe). Some passages struck me as really funny or meaningful, so I wrote them down. I think you all might like them.
Benford: -How do we frame the other side of an argument? We say, on the other hand. We think our two hands mirror the world. -If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody. -To live is to lose, in the end.
Bear: -No man, no woman, no machine, no idea, can reign supreme forever. -I am nothing, really. And it is quite wonderful to BE nothing, I assure you.
Brin: -If you understand the forces that drive people, you will never be taken by surprise. -Our poor friend has gone around his last corridor and hit bedrock, if you know what I mean. -Free will is an adolescent concept that keeps cropping up, like an obstinate weed. But most people outgrow it. -Individual people matter. Their differences are a richness, even more important that their similarities. -It's a good thing neither of us is human, or this guy would really be getting on my nerves.
Posted by soccersprout91 (Member # 8207) on :
this isn't from a book, rather from a person, but it's one of my favorite quotes. (and from one of my favorite musical artists as well.)
an educated citizenry will recognize a fascist before it's too late. -erin mckeown
it's simple, yes, but it's something everyone should think about.
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
My fave quote:
"For I have loved the stars too fondly to fear the night."
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
Educated citizenry: Yeah, unless they've been educated to be fascists and call it "being open-minded."
Maybe E.M. REALLY meant that people who are continually self-educating in a free society will recognize fascism ...
Because a lot of "educated" people don't have an untrained thought, months on end.
Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :
Stone, what the heck is that from? It's driving me crazy. I seem to remember it from a book. Hmm.
Here are 2 of mine :
"I didn't fight with honor. I fought to win." Ender Wiggin
Love that!
"I swear - by my life and love of it - that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." John Galt in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
The hidden harmony is stronger than the visible one.
Heraclitus
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Do we have a site somewhere with extremely good Peter Wiggin quotes/phraes?
Posted by Verily the Younger (Member # 6705) on :
We're just posting random quotes, are we? Okay, I'll bite.
"It is only the huge habits that people change without trouble. Communists can become Fascists with a day’s notice and Conservatives can crawl into the Liberal bed (or vice versa) with scarcely an extra breath between; men can switch wives and mousy women can go liberationist—-but show me a fellow who squeezes his toothpaste tube with his left hand, and I’ll show you a fellow who will never do it with his right hand, except maybe to win a bet and even then he’ll have trouble." --Darius Just, Isaac Asimov's Murder at the ABA
"Tradition is something you build on—-not escape into." --Graham Kerr
"It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up." --J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
"The objection to slipshod language is not so much its remissness, though there is that, as its effective elimination of useful expressions." --Kingsley Amis
Posted by DarkKnight (Member # 7536) on :
Here is my favorite all time quote... Benjamin Franklin at a dinner in Versailles after the English and French compared their leaders to the sun and the moon: "George Washington, Commander of the American armies, who, like Joshua of old, commanded the sun and the moon to stand still, and they obeyed him
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
Treason...You know, I'm not really sure anymore. The first time I saw that quote it was on a BB for Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles (an awesome CG show that's about half book and half movie) and it was credited to Sergeant Zimm. I googled it and pulled up a page from one of my old interests, and it was quoting me. *shrug* I guess it's up for grabs.
"For I have loved the stars too fondly to fear the night." Mike Norquist AKA Stone_Wolf_ AKA FremanSkum AKA Ranger AKA Lone-Wolf.
Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
Your children are not your children, They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but are not from you, And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries not with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness, For even as He loves the arrow that flies, So He loves also the bow that is stable. Excerpt from The Prophet Kalil Gibran
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
"When we hang the capitalist he will sell us the rope to hang him with"
Joseph Stalin.
Posted by ElaRibeira (Member # 8306) on :
"For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not" -Cat Stevens
"Things fall apart / The center cannot hold" -William Butler Yeats
"In destinies sad or merry, true men can but try" -Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
"Life is a suicide mission." -Jane in CotM
"The beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair" -Relient K
Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :
Here Stone_Wolf:
quote: Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. Sarah Williams; in "Best Loved Poems of the American People", Hazel Felleman, ed. Garden City Publishing Co., Garden City NY: 1936, pp. 613-614
Edit: I found the whole poem. Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
"I am a slow walker, but I never walk back."
-Abraham Lincoln
Posted by Stone_Wolf_ (Member # 8299) on :
Thank you Boon...now I know who to quote!
Posted by TheSeeingHand (Member # 8349) on :
Reporter: How long should a man's feet be? Abraham Lincoln: Long enough to reach the ground.
I love Abe! You can imagine my thrill when I read 'The Crystal City'!
"There is no teacher but the enemy." -Mazer Rackham
Posted by SpEeDMaSTeR (Member # 7568) on :
"If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them they know, not me."
- Cat Stevens ~ Father and Son
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'"
"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
All by Isaac Asimov.
Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :
All three of those were by Asimov. Go here to read a bunch of quotes by him. He has some great ones. Another of my favorites from that website is ""Isaac Asimov had writer's block once. It was the worst ten minutes of his life." - Anonymous.
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
Treason, your earlier quote is right out of the Art of War, where it says, (I am NOT quoting here) dont fight until you have to, then fight with all you have. Very Buddhist, Ender was, Along with compassion for his great enemy.
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.
Posted by chel (Member # 7674) on :
"raindrops are lonely they fall to earth to visit and we close our doors"
its not an exact quote. I think there might actually be another word in the middle line, i can't quite remember... but the general feeling is still there
Posted by PUNJABEE (Member # 7359) on :
"Impressive." - Darth Vader
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Orange that is worthy of quotedom.
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
most of Fight Club is.
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
The American is the middle aged man who has lived with vigor and honesty and righteously helped others, but kept out of fights. But the American is now the middle aged man who will scamper and scurry to get any stability he can, because he doesnt want anymore change. And this middle aged man is dying." cant remeber where I heard that but I think its pretty true, America is going downhill, and it grieves me to see politicians corrupting the system so they can stay in power. good grief.
Posted by trpollen (Member # 8274) on :
I started this topic a few months back, and I figured I'd go back to it and add some OSC quotes from his short story, The Originist, that I just read. So here goes:
-Why are you teasing me about my vanity? I've always been vain./I consider it one of your most endearing traits./At least I make an effort to live up to my own opinion of myself. -Challenge with new evidence instead of trying to twist the old stuff. Cast a light in the darkness. Don't just churn up the same old sediment at the bottom of the river. -My semen flows with gold. -No human relationship is ever anything but tentative. There is no such thing as an unbreakable bond between people. Like the particles in the nucleus of an atom. They are bound by the strongest forces in the universe, and yet they can be shattered, they can break. Nothing can last. Nothing is finally, what it once seemed to be. -One might die with the illusion of happiness, but all he has proven is that sometimes death comes before betrayal. If you live long enough, betrayal will inevitably come. -People use stories to form their own spiritual autobiography. They remember doing what the heroes of the stories did, and so they continue to act out each hero's character in their own lives, or, failing that, they measure themselves against the standard the story set for them. Stories become the human conscience, the human mirror.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
"Who said it? I said it just now, dolt."
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
"Ending a sentance with a preposition is somthing up with which I will no longer put." - Winston Churchill
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
one of my old favorites ... "The power of accurate observation is frequently called 'cynycism' by those who do not posess it". can't remember who said it.
Posted by Dr Strangelove (Member # 8331) on :
And as for Churchill ... this story/quote (roughly paraphrased and maybe untrue) always made me laugh. Churchill to woman: "Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?" Woman: "Yes" Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for 1 pound?" Woman, now offended: "Are you saying I'm a prostitute?!" Churchill: "Ma'am, we established that fact with the first question. Now we are simply negotiating the price"
hehe
Posted by Roseauthor (Member # 148) on :
Since I wrote this on my wall I figured I'd share. The other is the Happy Warrior by Wordsworth but too long to post.
How Did You Die?
Did you tackle that trouble that came your way With a resolute heart and cheerful? Or hide your face from the light of day With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce, Or a trouble is what you make it. And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts, But only how did you take it?
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that? Come up with a smiling face. It's nothing against you to fall down flat, But to lie there--that's a disgrace.
The harder you're thrown, why the higher you bounce; Be proud of your blackened eye! It isn't the fact that you're licked that counts; It's how did you fight and why?
And though you be done to death, what then? If you battled the best you could; If you played your part in the world of men, Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce, And whether he's slow or spry, It isn't the fact that you're dead that counts, But only, how did you die?
Edmund Vance Cooke (1866-1932)
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
I always enjoy the Rhyme of the ancient mariner but that too is too long to post.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
Why do people always attribute everything to Churchill? That "I already established what you are, now we're just haggling over the price" story is purest GBS. Can anyone even imagine Churchill doing something like that?
The "up with which I shall not put" was another less famous but not unknown writer who has unfortunately been lost to history because of the number of people attributing his wit to Winston Churchill.
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
Who was Shutruck Nahunte? (apologies to Ethan Canin). No one knows, cuz he lost the survival battle and never told his tale.
Winner takes all.
Posted by andi330 (Member # 8572) on :
quote:Originally posted by Princess Leah: "Ending a sentance with a preposition is somthing up with which I will no longer put." - Winston Churchill
I've also heard it this way, I don't know which is correct but... When told he should not end a sentence with a preposition, Winston Churchill replied,
"That is the kind of pedantical nonsense, up with which I will not put."
My Hebrew professor had us lable whole sections of our text book with PN, stood for pedantical nonsense, as a result.
Posted by LadyDove (Member # 3000) on :
From Homebody by OSC Harper Paperback, Pge 271
quote:"Why am I so certain of my doubt?"
quote: "Why is doubt the one thing we're never skeptical of? We question other people's beliefs, and the more sure they are the more we doubt them. But it never occurs to us to doubt our own doubt. Question our questions. We think our questions are answers."
Posted by Princess Leah (Member # 6026) on :
quote: quote: Originally posted by Princess Leah: "Ending a sentance with a preposition is somthing up with which I will no longer put." - Winston Churchill
*******
I've also heard it this way, I don't know which is correct but... When told he should not end a sentence with a preposition, Winston Churchill replied,
"That is the kind of pedantical nonsense, up with which I will not put."
Ooh, I like your version much better. I will officially use it now.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
It wasn't Churchill.
And the phrase was "arrant pedantry", not "pedantical[sic] nonsense".
Posted by RufflesBag3 (Member # 8735) on :
I don't remember where I heard this one but I think its good.
Don't mingle in the realm of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with katchup!
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
Sounds like a perversion of "Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."
Posted by Epictetus (Member # 6235) on :
"Now it must be understood that ink is the great missive weapon of the learned. Conveyed through a sort of engin called a quill, infinite numbers of these are hurled at the enemy by the valiant of both sides; as if it were an engagement of porcupines."
Jonathan Swift
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
"And the pig stood up"
George Orwell
Posted by RunningBear (Member # 8477) on :
"The only good chicken is a dead chicken"
Col. Sanders
Just Kiddin, I think.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 233) on :
Col. Sanders has clearly never eaten a live chicken.
Posted by Jebu (Member # 8718) on :
"Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"A poet is a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace trying to fashion an image out of the ashes." - Kahlil Gibran
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
This is an OSC original, from either one of his posts or his articles that I use all the time in my daily life, concerning professional athletes.
"They get paid an obscene amount of money for their ability to perform fundamentally useless acts."
Granted, I paraphrased, but the part I took from him was "their ability to perform fundamentally useless acts". The "obscene amount of money" was mine. But that's the most apt description of professional athletes I've ever seen, and I'm a sports nut.
Posted by Cali-Angel-Cat (Member # 8799) on :
quote:Originally posted by RufflesBag3: I don't remember where I heard this one but I think its good.
Don't mingle in the realm of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with katchup!
I've heard it said this way: Do Not Meddle In The Affairs Of Dragons, Mortal, For Thou Art Crunchy, And Taste Good With Ketchup.
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
Wrinkles only go where the smiles have been.
Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Posted by trpollen (Member # 8274) on :
I will, yet again, revive this topic because I started it, and I like to think that someone else might enjoy these as much as I do.
From Roger MacBride Allen's Caliban (based on Isaac Asimov's Robots... you all get the gist):
Humans are sure change can only be for the worse. They battle against change--and so ensure there is no change for the better. But to live is to change. All that lives must change. The end of change is the beginning of death.
The cessation of growth is the first step toward death.
What are people for? What is the meaning of life? There are some questions so basic that they can have no answer. People just are. Life just is. They contain their own meaning. We must make of them what we can.
Strange how sometimes you reach a decision, and you dind't even know you were trying to decide anything.
If madmen do not know when they are crazy, how can anyone ever be sure they are sane?
Logic and reason are not by themselves reliable guides to thought and action, for the world itself is neither reasonable nor logical.
It is often in the interactions between beings, rather than within the beings themselves, that life finds its purposes.
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
Fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
-- William Wallace
Got's to love the Braveheart
Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
There are too many good quotes to list!
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
I love these threads.
"Life is short, but I am tall." --?
"We are on the eve of discovering that nothing should be done for the sake of the gods, but all for the good of man--nothing for another world--everything for this." -Carl Sagan
"We question all our beliefs, except those we really believe, and those we never think to question." --OSC, SftD
"There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a while they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall...Think of that, always--when you are in doubt that that is God's way, the way the world is meant to be--think of that." --Ghandi
"Good morning. And if I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and good night." --The Truman Show
"It doesn't matter how unproductive you are, just as long as you get stuff done." --kid in my class
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